CMS Supt. Earnest Winston in exclusive Q&A: on school reopening, fall sports and more
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Supt. Earnest Winston admits he faces a lot of challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic and any plans for reopening schools.
This week, he sat down for an exclusive Q&A with on The Charlotte Observer’s streaming talk show “Talking Preps” that airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on The Observer’s Facebook and YouTube pages.
“The next imminent thing to do is successfully open schools,” Winston said. ”I’ve talked to superintendents who have been in the business for 10, 20, 30 years, and to a person they’ve all said we’ve never encountered something like this. I reached out to them to get best practices and to have a thought partner, because we’re trying to do this together and we’re trying to do it well in what is a trying environment where the floor in constantly moving from beneath us.”
Winston’s answers are lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Q. What’s been the toughest challenge of dealing with the pandemic?
“The toughest challenge is just trying to take in all of the feedback that you get from students, and our students have articulated their positions very well. Let me just talk about our seniors in particular, because when they started last school year, they had no inkling that they would not experience a normal senior year; one with no prom, no senior nights; and then the graduation ceremony experience was completely different from anything they’d envisioned. We’re going through times that are different, but different doesn’t diminish your overall experience.
“And so (facing a challenge is) listening to our parents, in terms of how this pandemic is impacting their ability to work as well as be able to home school their children. And then you also have staff concerns as well. But at the end of the day, knowing that it is my goal, it is my team’s goal, that staff and students are being educated and are working in a safe and environment as possible. We can’t compromise on that.”
Q. CMS is going to remote learning (a special Board Meeting was scheduled to further discuss reopening plans Thursday afternoon). Would CMS students who are remote learners be eligible to play sports in your opinion?
“Well, that would be a challenge. We certainly appreciate the concerns and the thoughts that parents and all members of our community have when it comes to our students and our student-athletes. There’s a lot of disappointment around the decision to postpone the athletic activity on our campuses this summer. And then we also know that there’s the uncertainty around the fall sports season. And so, we continue to await guidance from the N.C. High School Athletic Association, and we anticipate that within the next several weeks they may come out with some guidance, and then the governor, hopefully prior to that, will make an announcement. These are painstaking decisions that impact all of us, and we do not reach any of these decisions lightly. So, we will have to await that guidance before we make a determination on whether to move forward with fall sports.”
Q. Last week, a group of CMS student-athletes protested at CMS headquarters about the ability to play this fall. What impact, if any, did that have on those within the system?
“In addition to myself, other members of the district leadership team watched that event very closely. Students did what we taught them to do. They saw an issue that they’re very passionate about. They used their voice to provide some advocacy, and they did it the right way. It was peaceful. If students, frankly, were silent on the issue, I probably would’ve been a little bit disappointed, but they took an opportunity to talk about the benefits of of athletics.”
Q. Many districts in the state are going to remote learning. The CDC is saying we should reopen schools. Who’s right?
“There is no right answer. I think you have to take the information that you have at your disposal. But then I think you also have to look what are your goals? Is your goal to educate every child in a successful manner? And if that’s the case, then you have to look back and say, ‘Well, what do I need to do in order to make that happen?’ We need to make sure that we provide all of our students with the tools and the resources that they need to be educated well in this remote environment.
“One of the things that I have learned early on in my tenure as superintendent (is) you cannot make a decision that you are trying to please everybody involved. Inevitably, you’re going to upset some people. The measurement of success is not making everyone happy, but you know when I lay my head down at night when the pillow I have to be able to rest comfortably knowing that I made a decision that was in the best interest of the safety of our students and our staff, and that will allow them to get a solid and robust education.”
Q. The NCHSAA has allowed member schools to begin summer workouts, but CMS has not started yet. Why is that?
“What we have seen locally is that the numbers have not been moving in the right direction. And so, we have committed that we will allow that process to begin as soon as we feel like it is safe for students to be able to workout voluntarily, as well as coaches, because coaches have to be there. In terms of the guidance from the N.C. High School Athletic Association, one of the things that we are awaiting is whether or not we will have a fall sports season or if it’ll be condensed or exactly what that will look like. And so until we’re able to get that guidance and we hear from the governor, whether he plans to stay in phase two, or if we will move to another phase, I think all of those factors will help inform our decision.
Q. Do you have a point, a metric, that says “Go or no go with workouts”?
“At our Board of Education meeting last week, that (was part of) the feedback that the board provided to me and staff, is that we would like to be able to have a set of metrics that we can use to determine whether we should move from one phase to another phase. And so, we’re going to create a medical advisory team that will be comprised of leadership at our public health department, as well as our private health care providers. We will have district staff from central office on that team as well. That Advisory Council will deliberate and they will come back and recommend a set of metrics that we can use as part of our decision making process. So that process is well underway.”
Q. If there are no fall sports or sports this year, many parents are wondering about a “gap” year, where a senior could come back to high school next year. Your feelings on that.
“That that is something that we have not studied very closely, but it’s something that we will look at, so I can’t tell you at this particular point that I have an opinion on that particular scenario and what that could look like. We would have to study that a little bit more before we make a determination about that.”
Q. What about middle school athletics this year?
“it is our expectation that when we announce what our plans are for high school athletics, that we will do the same for middle school athletics. We know that our high school athletics program does significantly fund our middle school athletics, so that’s a decision that we will make, along with our high school decision.”
Q. Some of the schools in CMS have facilities that are far better than others. Your thoughts here?
“That is one of the things that disturbs me and that keeps me up at night, not only the inequities that I see in our classroom, but also the disparities that I see when it comes to our facilities. At many of our schools, the buildings are a lot older which means that the athletic facilities and all of the other things on that campus are older and we recently went to voters a few years ago, and they responded overwhelmingly with a successful bond referendum that allows us to update our school facilities....We don’t have all of the resources that we need to be able to update all of our facilities. That’s just a reality that exists, but it still is a concern that I have, because you know when I when I attend football games, I have an opportunity to visit different schools and check out the facilities, and it is not always fair that a student in one part of town does not have the access to the same facilities that students in another part of town (do). And so we’ve got some work to do in that regard to make sure that we’re providing those equitable opportunities for all of our students.”
This story was originally published July 30, 2020 at 2:59 PM.
